


The title is not important

by kurohswife



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: 1000 words, Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship, Future Fic, Gen, Headcanon, Introspection, Oneshot, Vignette, day 1: tip off, i feel my ooc senses tingling, miraclesweek, ok not really its just set in the future ok bye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 17:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1827049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurohswife/pseuds/kurohswife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tetsuya Kuroko remembers a generation of firsts.</p><p>Written for Day 1 Prompt (“Tip off’) for Miracles Week 2014.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The title is not important

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for OOC. T_T Also. I’m not in Uni. SO I DON’T KNOW, FIGHT ME
> 
> You can read this on my Tumblr here: [yoooo](http://kurohs-wife.tumblr.com/post/89534037258/the-title-is-not-important)
> 
> Participate in Miracles week now~ It's not too late! [here](http://miraclesweek.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Edit: 23 June - for some reason, random parts were cut off! I completed these. TuT

The air is cool and the sky still overcast, as the hour is early in the morning. Though it is March, winter has not departed Tokyo just yet, lingering behind for a little longer. The trees that are in Kuroko’s street are still mostly bare, limbs stretching towards the cloudy grey sky, and the bitumen is bitten with frost. His breath forms soft foggy forms in front of his lips and dissipate through the still air, lost into the open space.

“Morning,” says the kind old lady on the corner of the street, who somehow manages to notice him every time he passes by.

“Good morning,” Kuroko replies politely, wheeling his _mamachari_ past, before deftly hopping onto it. Today is his last official day at T-University, and he is supposed to meet Kagami at the Cafeteria before going to class. Which, of course, isn’t so much a class as it is an informal party, but students were still required to be present. After this, there would be the graduation ceremony, but that was the next day. All of their Seirin upperclassman had promised to attend the ceremony, even Izuki, who was probably regretting moving halfway across Japan for the sake of a pun.

The apartments and stores that line the street pass by in a strangely foreign blur. Though he has cycled past them every day for the last half-decade, and often frequented them with others even longer before, he feels a sudden detachment, almost as if he has realised for the first time the existence of these places.

Vaguely, he notices the Steak Bomber that Riko forcibly made the Seirin team eat at all those years ago. Now that he remembers it, it was the first time that the team had eaten together, and it was the first time that he had seen Kagami eat until he was actually bloated, not just merely full.

He passes through the gate and chains his _mamachari_ to the bicycle rack, before heading off to the Cafeteria. In his time at T-University, his _mamachari_ has become something of a legend among students, one that mysteriously appeared early in the morning, disappeared by afternoon, yet never seemed to have an owner. There was a rumour that if you touched it you would be unable to graduate, unless you left a vanilla milkshake coupon in the basket. This rumour was in fact (partly) unwittingly started by a certain Ryouta Kise, who told one of his fan-girls from T- University that “[he knows] someone who has a _mamachari_ and loves vanilla milkshakes.” The rest was, of course, due to the active imaginations of some university students.

Kuroko purchases a vanilla milkshake from the cafeteria. They weren’t as good nor as cheap as the Maji Burger ones, but that’s university food for you. He sits down in front of Kagami, who was grumbling about Kuroko’s lateness.

“I’m here.”

“W-wHAT?” yells Kagami. Even though Kagami had known Kuroko for eight years, if he was a little careless, he’d be unable to notice Kuroko’s presence. Thankfully, there weren’t enough people in the Cafeteria to care too much. Though his shout echoed loudly in the empty dining area, only the lunch-ladies were there to judge Kagami, but they found it endearing instead.

“I was here all along,” says Kuroko with slight amusement.

“Liar,” growls Kagami, unwrapping a burger and biting into it. He had stopped at Maji Burger on his way there, and though he was technically not supposed to bring other food into the Cafeteria, Kagami was surprisingly popular with the lunch-ladies. Popular enough to let it slide.

“You got me,” says Kuroko, sipping his shake.

“Don’t just nonchalantly say ‘you got me’!” says Kagami a little irritably, before noticing Kuroko’s lips tightening slightly. “So, uh… how’s it going?”

Kuroko raises an eyebrow in mild amusement. Kagami’s sudden transitions into polite speech were always quite a spectacle. “Nothing much, not since I saw you last weekend.”

“Right,” Kagami cleares his throat a little awkwardly. “Hey, did I tell you that Aomine decided to…”

“…decline the offer to play basketball professionally and instead become a coach? Yes, I did, Kagami, and probably before you did.”

“Wait, what??” fumes Kagami. “That bastard told me he was going to take the offer!”

Kuroko shrugs. “Choices are not set in stone. I’m sure Aomine has his own reasons for not telling you the truth. He might even become your coach.”

“He is _not_ becoming my coach,” mutters Kagami. Kuroko merely smiles.

“Kagami, why don’t you relax? Today is our last day in university.”

And with that, they sit in comfortable silence for a while. Kuroko is content with sipping his milkshake, the sweet flavour light on his tongue.

Kagami clears his throat, unable to stay still for long. “I-it’s weird, don’t you think?”

“What’s weird?”

“This,” Kagami says, “doesn’t feel like the last day of uni.”

“Of course it doesn’t, Kagami,” Kuroko says mildly. “It’s almost like any other day, but today there are classes which don't involve learning anything.”

A small group of lethargic students wander into the cafeteria, trying not to trip on their way to the counter. The raucous they made echoed in the cafeteria, bringing a little life to the lit room.

“I dunno, I just feel like something important has ended,” says Kagami, shrugging.

Kuroko can understand. He first had that sensation in the second year of middle school, when Aomine stopped attending trainings.

“And then, in a week’s time, you’ll wake up and find that not that much has changed, after all,” Kuroko points out. “But I know what you mean.”

After all, a decade has passed since Kuroko realised that his teammates were wrong about their method of basketball. Nine years have passed since the first time Kuroko had felt the alien emotion of hatred towards his sport. Eight years have passed since he first resolved to play basketball his own way, with kind friends and a slew of victories. Seven years since he and the other Miracles more or less resolved their conflicts, six since his upperclassmen graduated with hopeful eyes and joyful expressions, five since his high school graduation. In the last five years, he stuck with Kagami through university. Though they no longer pursued becoming number one together in Japan as the NBA did not have a place for a player like Kuroko, they still played games of basketball, sometimes against some of their former team mates, sometimes in University games, sometimes against the other Miracles. Kuroko also started coaching the under-twelves in basketball three years ago.

Much has happened in the last decade – many of them new experiences. A generation of firsts.

Kagami hesitates to speak.

Suddenly, “wanna ditch class?”

Kuroko raises an eyebrow. “You want to skip the last university class we’ll ever have? The one where we actually have a reason to not do work?”

Kagami shrugs.

But Kuroko smiles briefly, and they stand up, throwing their trash in the Cafeteria bins one last time before heading out.

**Author's Note:**

> \- In this story, Izuki had several job offers after he graduated, and one of them was both a reasonable option and would allow for a pun when he introduced himself to others.  
> \- I remember reading something about how college women and older women in general think Kagami is cute.  
> \- Also I’ve assumed that the courses that Kuroko and Kagami take are 5 years.


End file.
